Tarleton State to open defense of men’s Lone Star tournament title

The Tarleton State men’s basketball team heads to the Allen Event Center with the drive to replicate its championship performance in last year’s Lone Star Conference Tournament.

The No. 1-seeded Texans (24-2, 12-2 LSC) begin the defense of the league title at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday against first-round opponent West Texas A&M (10-16, 2-12). Tarleton swept its regular season meetings with West Texas A&M, winning 87-63 on Jan. 22 and 81-68 on Feb. 19.

Tarleton State coach Lonn Reisman said that at this point of the season you have to throw out the records of each team, saying that it is a new season. .

“I think they are a talented basketball team,” Reisman said. “You have to go in there and approach this game like it is the last game you are going to play. If you lose you go home and if you win you get to stay there.”

The Texans earned a share of the regular-season championship with Midwestern State after Tarleton fell on the final day of the season to Cameron. Despite the loss and shared championship, Reisman acknowledges that his team had a historic season. The Texans entered the week No. 2 in the NCAA Division II Coaches Poll. They also won their first 18 games of the season.

“I have been coaching for 26 years but I have never had a team that played this well as a team,” Reisman said. “There is a lot more pressure on you to have the expectation on you. I am very proud of my team.”

Tarleton finished the season as the league’s overall scoring leader, averaging 86.8 points per game. Tarleton’s De’Andre Upchurch finished third in scoring, averaging 16.4 per game, while Chuck Guy, a Fort Worth native, finished sixth with 16.1 points per game.

TexAnns rematch

Tarleton State women’s basketball team enters the first round of the Lone Star Conference Tournament facing a rematch of its regular-season finale against Texas A&M-Commerce, a game the TexAnns lost 74-69.

The TexAnns (19-7, 10-6 LSC) finished five games behind regular-season champion West Texas A&M and earned the second seed in the tournament beginning Wednesday.

Tarleton State and Texas A&M-Commerce tip at noon in the first game of the tournament.